Monday, August 11, 2014

Fix My Eyes: Call To Be Like Christ

I have noticed that once you start listening to God speak his plan into you, He makes it loud and clear!

This past year when He told me I needed to change my priorities in life, not only was my Bible Study at the time called Intentionally Focused (focused on resetting our priorities) but at the same time I was attempting to find a home church for myself here in our new state, every single Sunday I went to a different church and each time God brought a message straight to my heart about priorities.

I started to get the hint that He really wanted me to put my priorities in the correct order.

Now here He is again speaking so loudly into my heart that it is most definitely hard to miss. My call now is to be like Christ. Not just believe, not just study his word everyday but actually be like Christ.

Practicing, and showing the world that it is not I who lives in me, but Christ.

This week started out so well, Sunday's church service energized me, rejuvenated me but most importantly, it challenged me. Challenged me to really exude the characteristics of Christ.

By going over the few characteristics of Christ that Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:1-12, God opened my eyes to my very selfish and un-Christ like ways. One point truly stuck out to me,

Blessed are those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7

I need to show mercy for ALL, especially when they don't deserve it because Jesus shows mercy to me when I don't deserve it. Oh friends, this is where I struggle the most. I can show mercy when it's easy, but when its hard to show mercy I get caught up in my own emotions and feelings. Jesus wants me to open my eyes to the fact that anyone can give mercy when its easy,its when its hard that Christ shines through us the most.

Following the church service, my online Leadership Bible Study, which is preparing me to become a leader with Good Morning Girls this fall, began.

And do you think God is using this study to touch my heart on my need to change to behave like Christ??

Absolutely!

We are learning that to be true leaders for Christ that we must be willing to humble ourselves and serve the people we minister to (Matthew 23:10-12), have the same mindset as Christ and put others before ourselves (Philippians 2:1-5), conduct ourselves in a loving, faithful and pure manner in our thoughts, words and actions (1 Timothy 4:6, 11-12) and be devoted to the study and observance of Gods law. (Ezra 7:10)

Because if I lead as Christ lead, by example, those that I lead will follow.

And because God loves to drive his point home with my favorite thing, music, he had me hear

Lets not just learn what the Bible says but lets act on it. Lets practice, and follow God's teachings, in Christ's footsteps. It is going to be tough, and in order to succeed we must know what the word of God says, specifically what kind of character we are supposed to exude.

But lets "Love like we're not scared, give when its not fair, and live life for another" because that is how Christ lived his life for us. He experienced the most unfair, horrendous thing that you or I could ever imagine: He suffered persecution, beatings, and was crucified not because of something that He did, but the things that we did and do.

Our sins, not his. Now that is unfair my friends. That is unfair.

In order to help understand the character qualities that are most like Christ's, lets look at